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Now that digital is all the rage film cameras can be had for a song. If you look at ebay you can probably find all sorts of items that would interest you. I wouldn't get the Praktica fixed, I had one way back when and they really weren't all that well built.

If you like medium format I would suggest looking at a used Yashicamat or Rollei. I see a Yashica on US ebay at the moment for $33. You get the nice negative, the ability to see what you are shooting and your choice of waist level or eye level shooting. You can even put on closeup lenses.

Using the Holga may be fun, but at some moment you actually might want the picture to come out properly. One can always blur a sharp picture or do other manipulation, especially if you scan the film and make edits digitally, but you are stuck going the other way.

In the mean time, just enjoy the camera...

Policies not Politics
---- Daily Landscape

by rdf (robert.feinman@gmail.com) on Wed May 28th, 2008 at 06:11:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Well, I am keeping an eye on e-bay now!  The Yashica's seem to sell for a much higher price than the rollei's.  although that said I have seen people trying to sell rollei's for 330-690 pounds.  they don't appear to be vastly different from the ones selling for around 50-100.  I've taken a look at reviews etc more widely. It does certainly look like the type of camera I'd like to move onto, I really enjoy the look of medium format.

Ad astra per aspera
by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Thu May 29th, 2008 at 02:37:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]
You have to be careful with Rollei's. They are very well built, but tend to be quite old. My model 2.8E is now 50 years old. The current model is FX and sells for about $4400US. Between the current one and mine were the E2 and F, so you see they haven't changed models very frequently.

Here's a site which lists the ages of various models:
http://www.siufai.dds.nl/Rollei_History.htm

So cheap Rollei's may be old Rollei's. The Rolleiflex is a better camera than the Rolleicord, but only from an operational point of view. Stay away from the various automatic models, they didn't work well.

Yashica's are probably much younger. In addition you can keep your eye on Mamiyaflex which even has interchangeable lenses. It's a lot bulkier though.

There are even some current cameras in production; the Seagull from China is inexpensive even new. People who use larger formats tend to become passionate about this.

I see there are a number of web sites devoted to the subject, you might poke around and ask some questions.
Try this to start:
http://photo.net/bboard/forum?topic_id=35

Policies not Politics
---- Daily Landscape

by rdf (robert.feinman@gmail.com) on Thu May 29th, 2008 at 03:49:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I saw the seagull when I was looking up on Holgas.  I've seen a lot of allegedly very good condition Rollei's advertised on e-bay, plus a few that you can tell by the patchy description are probably a little bit battered.  Will keep poking around.

Ad astra per aspera
by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Thu May 29th, 2008 at 04:07:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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